


With You, Under the Mistletoe

by undeniablyboo



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Changbin is so oblivious it's painful, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Friends to Lovers, Intense debates over mint hot chocolate, Jisung and Jeongin best meddling roommates, M/M, Mistletoe, Secret Santa, Tree decorating and shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28252962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undeniablyboo/pseuds/undeniablyboo
Summary: No matter what anyone tells you, Changbin doesn't hate Christmas.He just has a crush on his friend, meddling roommates and an accidental kiss under the mistletoe that leads Changbin to possibly finding his Christmas spirit.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Han Jisung | Han/Lee Felix, Hwang Hyunjin/Seo Changbin, Kim Seungmin/Yang Jeongin | I.N, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 93





	With You, Under the Mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not at all in the Christmas spirit but here I present a 18k Changjin Christmas fic.
> 
> Inspired by me watching Dash & Lily in November, and desperately wanting a cliché Christmas romance.
> 
> Enjoy!

The classic ‘All I want for Christmas is you’ by Mariah Carey plays through the speakers on repeat, courtesy of Jeongin’s student discounted Spotify premium account. “I live here, I get to choose the music,” he reasons. 

Despite it being November 30th, Changbin’s roommates always got into the holiday spirit before it could even be considered the holidays. Jisung dances around the living room, trying his best to hit all of the high notes that Mariah could hit. With a glass of red wine in a plastic cup in one of his hands, Jisung spins his boyfriend around with the other, Felix giggling as Jisung tries to dip him one-handed. Unsuccessfully as Felix falls to the floor and Jisung quickly picking him back up off the ground. 

Their apartment hasn’t been decorated yet, but with December just hours away, it’s inevitable that Changbin will get dragged into assisting Jisung and Jeongin with decorating their apartment. 

Changbin cradles his own cup of wine as he makes himself comfortable on the sofa, sitting beside him is Chan, his best friend and classmate, and beside him is Minho; Chan’s ‘not boyfriend’. Which is a total lie if Changbins ever heard one. 

“Bin, move, I wanna sit next to Channie.” Jeongin comes over and attempts to pull him from his seat on the sofa. Being the youngest, Jeongin also has the worst alcohol tolerance out of everyone in the room, so his attempts to lift his roommate comes to no avail. Instead, he stumbles over his feet and almost into Changbin’s lap. 

“Erm, I’m already sitting here,” Changbin states, his tone of voice almost condescending as he talks to a tipsy Jeongin, “why don’t you go sit with your boyfriend?”

Jeongin pouts, he links his fingers with Changbin’s and sways their hands, “Seungie is talking with Hyunjin.”

Changbin peers his head around Jeongin and sees that Seungmin is indeed talking with the blond. The two of them are standing next to the window, laughing at something one of them said. 

“T-minus one minute to midnight,” Jisung yells out, gaining the attention of everyone else. 

Jeongin gasps, whipping his head to look at Jisung, the information seems to have sobered him up as he rips his hands from Changbin’s hold and runs over to where Jisung and Felix are counting down to midnight; or more importantly, December 1st.

“ _ 3...2...1…” _

“It’s Christmas.” Jisung cheers gleefully, throwing his hands up in the air, narrowly missing spilling his wine over the edge of his cup as he throws it upwards. Seeing the almost incident, Jisung only giggles, the drunk version of himself not worrying about what could’ve been, whereas sober Jisung would’ve cried in relief over their white carpet remaining spillage free.

Changbin just rolls his eyes at their excitement, he wonders how he ended up rooming with Jisung and Jeongin; two people who were both avid fans of the winter holiday, while he himself, has never had much of the holiday spirit.

“I’m gonna get myself a refill,” he murmurs to Chan as he stands. On the kitchen counter are multiple bottles of red wine, some of them he bought himself in preparation for the party, the others brought by their guests. The alcohol is strictly kept in the kitchen after an incident that involved Changbin, Jisung and Jeongin in the youngest’s bedroom with a bottle of red wine, a single chopstick and resulting in red stained bedsheets. And they certainly don’t want a repeat of that.

Eyeing the bottle that’s just under half full, Changbin pours it into his glass until the red liquid nears the rim of the plastic cup. The odd choice of cup was because one of the first times they held a party at their apartment, Jeongin got drunk within the first two hours and dropped a glass onto the kitchen floor while trying to impress Seungmin, whom he was in the early stages of courting. 

The plastic crinkles in his grasp as he brings it up to his mouth to take a sip, which turns into him taking two or three gulps until half of the drink is gone. 

He makes his way out of the kitchen, only to bump into Hyunjin in the doorway. Changbin steps to his left to let Hyunjin through, only for Hyunjin to step to his right, keeping both of them still facing one another. 

They both take a step in the opposite direction and let out an awkward chuckle. Hyunjin brushes a piece of his long blond hair behind his ear, looking down as he lets out a giggle. 

Changbin first met Hyunjin earlier that year at Jeongin’s birthday party. He was invited by Felix, introduced as the younger’s close friend. With his love of dancing and charming personality, he naturally fit into their friendship group. Eventually coming back for every birthday, holiday and general party throughout the year. 

He watched as he met Hyunjin with shorter black hair and witnessed over the year as he grew out his locks and dyed them blond. 

Other than his hair, that stands out compared to anyone else in the room, Hyunjin also has the appearance of a supermodel; tall, lean and drop-dead gorgeous. Which is the reason why Changbin has yet to have a decent conversation with the taller other than basic small talk and one conversation about coffee versus hot chocolate. 

It’s not Changbin’s fault he freezes up in the presence of a pretty boy. 

At this point, Changbin’s behaviour has gone on for too long that Hyunjin probably thinks that he doesn’t like him and makes small talk just to be polite. Which is so far from the truth. 

“Hi Changbin,” Hyunjin breathes out, he hasn’t moved from the centre of the doorway, giving Changbin no chance to escape, “I haven’t had the chance to talk to you all night.” 

“Yeah, that’s true.” Changbin admits, “I’ve been too busy making sure Jisung doesn’t break anything, Felix included.” He doesn’t add that he somewhat avoids being alone with Hyunjin because he doesn’t trust himself to not embarrass himself. 

Hyunjin let’s out a laugh, “Oh yeah, I saw him drop Lix to the floor, he’s definitely gonna wake up with a bruise on his ass tomorrow.”

“Knowing the two of them they won’t remember it happening.” Changbin shakes his head, a smirk on his face as he remembers one memory, “One time when we went clubbing, Jisung woke up the next morning and couldn’t remember a single thing from the night. Including jumping into a fountain to ‘save the fishies.’” He air quotes the exact words Jisung said to him as he ran full force towards the fountain in the park and jumped in feet first. 

“Did he not question why he woke up with wet hair?” Hyunjin questions. 

Changbin throws his arms up in disbelief. “I know right,” he exclaims, “but he wasn’t even concerned about what could’ve happened, he was more concerned about-”

“Wait,” Hyunjin interrupts, “was this the same night that you had to jump into the fountain to get Jisung out.”

“Yes,” Changbin sighs out through clenched teeth, “fortunately there’s only been one night Jisung drunkenly decided to become an environmentalist. If it were to happen a second time, I’ll leave him to play with the spare change thinking it’s goldfish.” 

This brings another laugh out of Hyunjin, except this one is louder and he covers his mouth with his hand. Changbin didn’t realise what he said was funny, looking up at the handsome boy in front of him laughing because of something he said, he could feel his head inflate a little bit bigger. 

To be honest, Changbin quite likes the fact that Hyunjin is taller than him, yes, Changbin is the smallest amongst all of his friends, but there is something about the way Hyunjin holds himself, that he could confidently walk into a room with his head held high, but then the next minute he could jump into Felix’s arm’s like wasn’t inches taller than him.

Changbin works out that Hyunjin’s lips were at the same level as his forehead, this information doesn’t have any significance, and will definitely never be said out loud. But more than once, Changbin has found himself staring at the younger’s doll-like lips, his thoughts running wild.

“You’re hilarious,” Hyunjin blurts out, it takes him a second to realise what he admitted, and quickly tries to backtrack, “I mean- Jisung’s hilarious, you never really know what you’re in for with that guy.”

Changbin misses the subtle blush that rises to Hyunjin’s cheeks. He’s more thinking about how he’s actually having a conversation with Hyunjin, one that doesn’t involve what they’ve been up to over the past week or the damn weather. That it feels nice for him to chat with Hyunjin one on one without any of their friends jumping into the conversation and potentially embarrassing him. 

Hyunjin puts his cup of wine down on the kitchen counter next to them, the drink now out of his hands makes Changbin think that the taller wants to stay in the kitchen longer with him, so he does the same and places his own cup next to Hyunjin’s, not wanting to go back into the living room just yet, “Yeah, he claims that he’s-”

Changbin is unable to finish the rest of his sentence, because Hyunjin unexpectedly rushes forward, his hands land onto Changbin’s shoulders and his lips land on Changbin’s own. Naturally, Changbin freezes up, a million and one thoughts run through his head. The first and biggest one being - what the fuck? And the second one being - am I dreaming?

His hands awkwardly place themselves on Hyunjin’s waist on instinct, his eyes fluttering shut at the weight on his lips. It’s not the best kiss Changbin’s ever had, considering their lips don’t even move, but the contact is enough for it to be considered a kiss. But if he thinks about it, it’s not the worst kiss he’s ever had either, if he counts the kiss he had in Wooyoung’s parents’ closet with a girl who’s name he didn’t even know when he was fifteen, that involved too much tongue on her part and the fact he almost cried afterwards.

Hyunjin pulls away first, and as Changbin opens his eyes slowly he sees the younger staring back at him frantically with wide eyes, a blush running all the way down his neck that contrasts with his blond hair.

“I-”

“What-”

The sound of maniacal laughter gains both of their attention, they turn to face Jisung, standing behind Hyunjin in the doorway. He sways slightly from side to side, visibly appearing more drunk since Changbin has last seen him, “Mistletoe, bitches. Woo~” He points upwards to the ceiling, Changbin follows the direction and does indeed see mistletoe hanging above his and Hyunjin’s heads. 

“What? Why is there mistletoe? How did it even get there?” Changbin asks looking at Jisung, he avoids looking at Hyunjin.

Jisung rolls his eyes with a scoff, “It’s Christmas, Changbin,” he states likes it’s the obvious, “I put it there when you went into the kitchen, and I saw you two stood underneath the mistletoe for ages without doing anything so I gave Hyunjinnie a little push and voila; a kiss under the mistletoe.”

Changbin takes in the whole information, so Hyunjin kissing him wasn’t just an out of the blue spontaneous thing to do, but instead, was the repercussion of his idiotic roommate. 

“I’m going to murder you in your sleep,” Changbin says while looking Jisung dead in the eye.

Despite being drunk, Jisung can still pick up on the older’s intimidating tone, his eyes widening to the point they almost bug out of his head, “Would you look at that, Lixie is calling for me.” He swiftly does a 180 and almost trips over his feet trying to get away quick enough.

It’s then that Changbin finally looks at Hyunjin for the first time since their lips unexpectedly met, he certainly isn’t expecting to see the younger with his head tilted back as he downs the rest of his wine. They make eye contact as Hyunjin wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, his face pink from what Changbin assumes to be the glow from the alcohol in his system.

Changbin laughs dryly, “I- erm, so-”

“I’m going to go back into the living room,” Hyunjin interrupts him, he hikes a thumb over his shoulder, glancing Changbin over once, then twice, before nodding to himself and walking slowly backwards out of the kitchen. He bumps into the corner of the doorway on his way out, letting out a shriek as a thump echoes through the kitchen.

He smiles shyly in embarrassment, they make eye contact which is accidental on both parts as they quickly avert their gazes anywhere else. Hyunjin gives him an awkward thumbs up and finally leaves the kitchen, leaving Changbin alone to wonder that the fuck just happened.

Grabbing an unopened bottle of wine; white, this time, he makes his way back into the living room where the rest of his friends are partying like it’s Christmas Eve. While Changbin sits and watches it all, managing to avoid Hyunjin for the rest of the night more so than he usually does.

  
  
  


-

  
  
  


Changbin doesn’t see Hyunjin again until a week later. Like he expected, he’s dragged out of bed at 8am on a Saturday morning by his two boisterous roommates to go down to the storage room in their building to grab the Christmas decorations from last year’s festivities. 

“Changbinnie, you're here because you’re the muscle out of this sexy trio, even though Felix compliments these guns all the time,” Jisung flexes his arms in his - inappropriately worn for the weather - oversized tank top.

Picking up a box labelled ‘tinsel and shit’, Changbin scoffs, “I’m sure he does.”

It takes them a few trips down to the storage room before the three of them have everything they need inside their apartment.

Changbin observes the multiple boxes across the room and wonders how long it’ll take to put everything up. He reaches into one of the boxes and grabs a traditional Santa hat, only for it to be ripped out of his hands by Jeongin. “What are you doing? We have to wait for everyone else to arrive before we start decorating,” he says.

“Everyone else?” Changbin asks, he assumes it would just be the three of them, considering neither of his roommates mentioned that anyone else would be joining them, “Who else is joining us?”

A conveniently timed doorbell rings through the apartment. Jisung runs to the door and swings it open, revealing Seungmin and Felix behind it.

“Seungmin,” Jeongin yells out, as he runs and jumps into his boyfriend’s arms, acting like he hasn’t seen the older in years, when he in fact slept over just two days ago.

Jisung gives his own boyfriend an equally over the top kiss, which makes Changbin recoil in discomfort. Great, so he is going to spend the entire day being a fifth wheel, he mentions this as so. And in return receives an eye roll from Jisung, “Stop being dramatic, you’re not gonna be a fifth wheel. We still need to wait for everyone else to arrive.”

They sit and wait a little while longer for their other friends to arrive, Changbin distracts himself on his phone while his other two roommates are preoccupied with their boyfriends.

Thankfully, Chan and Minho turn up, though their arrival isn’t much to help Changbin not feeling like the odd one out as they make their entrance not-so discreetly holding hands. Not boyfriends, my ass, Changbin thinks.

“Okay, let's get started, the sooner we start, the sooner we finish. Jeongin, I’ll even allow you to play some Christmas songs, I’m feeling generous today.” He stands up, clapping his hands together to simultaneously gather everyone’s attention to get moving.

“Slow down, we're still waiting for one more person.” Jisung tugs at the bottom of Changbin’s t-shirt, pulling him back down into his seat.

“Well they should hurry up,” Changbin crosses his arms over his chest in annoyance. Jeongin smirks at him from across the across the room where he’s currently sat in Seungmin’s lap to make room for everyone, “Seems like someone’s getting into the Christmas spirit, huh Changbin.”

“Really Changbin?” Felix pipes up, “Does that mean I can buy you a Christmas present this year?” His doe-like eyes widen that Changbin finds it physically impossible to say no to him, “yeah, sure.”

Felix gasps in excitement, “I can’t wait, oh my god.” He turns to his boyfriend, “Babe we need to make a list of potential things we could get Changbin, we have just over two weeks to find something for him.”

On the other side of him, Chan has a thoughtful look on his face before lighting up, “I have a idea, feel free to say no, but what if we do a Secret Santa this year?” 

Before anyone can answer, there’s a knock on the door. 

“Changbin, you get it,” Jisung demands, he raises his head from Felix’s shoulder to shoot him his best puppy dog eyes. 

“Why can’t you get it?”

Jisung shrugs, his facial expression melting back into his smug grin, “I’m lazy.”

“Fine,” he grunts, with a lot of effort he pulls himself up from the sofa, “who the fuck is it anyway? Knocking when it’s obvious we have a doorb- Hyunjin.”

Standing in the hallway, Hyunjin is wearing a warmer jacket with the change in weather, his hair is half tied up; the shorter, wispy pieces of hair pinned back with hairpins. “Hello, sorry I’m late.”

Changbin opens the door wider, but doesn’t move out the way or invite him in, “Hey, it’s okay, we weren’t waiting long.”

“Hurry up, Changbin, let him in.” He can hear Jeongin say from behind him. 

The reminder seems to shake Changbin out from the trance he’s in. He steps to the side to let Hyunjin through. 

“Finally, we’re all here,” Jeongin says, “let’s get started, this apartment isn’t gonna decorate itself.”

Chan gets the plastic Christmas tree out the box while Changbin and Minho move one of the sofas against the wall to make room for the tree to be the eye catching point of the room. 

They spend the day decorating the entire apartment; tinsel is displayed over every doorway and along the walls. As well as a cheap, plastic wreath gettting hung up. Even their fireplace gets decorated with three stockings that are each detailed with Changbin, Jisung and Jeongin’s names in stickers done by Jeongin who wanted something to make it fit their little family.

Changbin tolerates the extensive decorations, he will always go along with anything as long as it makes Jisung and Jeongin happy, but he puts his foot down as soon as he sees Jeongin bring a large bag of powdered fake snow out from behind his back.

Felix and Jisung struggle with putting the Christmas lights onto the branches of the tree. Then Changbin is given the task of putting the baubles and other wacky ornaments onto the tree. As he places a plastic DIY bauble filled with glitter stars, he feels the presence of someone come up next to him. 

It doesn’t take long for him to work out that it’s Hyunjin beside him, especially from the way the other reaches higher than him when placing baubles onto the fake branches. 

“This is cute,” Hyunjin murmurs while looking at an ornament; once again a homemade one, this time a photo frame that displays a picture of Changbin and his roommates. Taken on Jisung’s birthday, the birthday boy himself has his arms thrown over the shoulders of the other two. Drunken grins plastered on their faces. 

Changbin assumes that Hyunjin’s talking to himself, but he answers him anyway, “That’s from Jisung’s birthday last year.” He informs him, “We don’t remember much after that picture was taken. But the frame is made by Jeongin, he has a hobby of arts and crafts in his spare time.”

“That’s adorable.”

“Yeah,” Changbin agrees. 

He keeps his gaze forward to avoid looking at Hyunjin, over the past week Changbin’s thoughts always run back to his kiss with the blond man. Subconsciously he would find himself looking out staring at nothing with his fingertips brushing against his lips. Before he shakes himself out of said thoughts or someone else found him like that, gave him a weird look then snapped him out of it. 

“Where’s the star?” Hyunjin asks suddenly. All of the tree decorations are up and now all that is left is the star for the top of the tree. 

Changbin goes over to the box where the rest of the tree decorations were and takes the star. He holds it out to Hyunjin, “here, I think it’s best if you do it, since you’re taller.”

Hyunjin smiles and takes it without complaint. Changbin watches as he steps up to the tree and reaches up, when his arm can’t stretch high enough he goes up onto his tiptoes but even then he’s still just out of reach. 

He puts his feet back onto the floor, “why do you guys have to have such a tall tree?” He has the cutest pout on his face as he complains, it’s like he wants to have all of Changbin’s attention on his lips. 

“-Do you guys have a step ladder?”

“-I could lift you up?”

They speak at the same time, their reactions are simultaneous as they let out a quiet chuckle, a blush rises to both of their cheeks at the idea of one of the questions. 

“We don’t have a step ladder,” Changbin answers him, which leaves them with one other option.

“Do you erm- you can get on my back, or my shoulders,” Changbin stammers out, he picks imaginary lint off his t-shirt to distract himself from Hyunjin’s heavy stare. 

“Or,” Hyunjin trails out, “you could pick me up just by wrapping your arms around my waist- actually I don’t think that’ll do much. You could wrap your arms around my thighs and hoist me up. I should easily be able to reach if we do that.”

Changbin nods silently at the suggestion, “okay, cool, we can do that.” He doesn’t wait for an instruction before he gets straight to it, bending his knees so that he can wrap his arms around the blond man’s thighs and lifts him up with ease. 

Hyunjin stretches his arm out, letting out little noises to indicate that he’s too far away. Luckily Changbin understands and takes a step closer to the tree. Where Hyunjin finishes the tree decorating, “there, all done.”

Changbin puts him down and they both admire their work. 

“I think we did a pretty good job,” Changbin admits. 

“Pretty good? I think we did amazing. I mean- look at this; the spacing between the ornaments, the lights are at the perfect position that they don’t clash with the tinsel.” Hyunjin stands like he’s an art critic, moving his hands animatedly as he talks. 

“I also think you guys did amazing,” the smirk is evident in Seungmin’s voice. 

Changbin turns and sees all of his friends watching him and Hyunjin. Realisation dawns on him that his friends had witnessed him and Hyunjin decorate as well as him lifting Hyunjin up to put the star on the tree. 

“What do you think Changbin? Is it too Christmassy for you?” Jisung asks teasingly. 

Scanning over the room at the over the top decorations, Changbin rolls his eyes, “I can tolerate it.”

Jeongin huffs, “I’ll take it, we all know that you hate Christmas, but-“

“Wait,” Hyunjin blurts out louder than he must’ve intended by the way he slaps his hand over his mouth, “you hate Christmas? Why wasn’t I informed that I’d been in the presence of a Grinch? A Scrooge?”

Now Changbin really does roll his eyes, “I don’t,” he throws up air quotes with hands, “ _ hate  _ Christmas, I just don’t get into the holiday spirit as much as those two over there.” He points to his roommates who are still wearing their tacky Santa hats, this time with tinsel wrapped around their necks like scarves. 

Hyunjin pushes his shoulder gently, playfully, “I’m just joking, it’s fine that you don’t enjoy Christmas as much as the fanatics.” He gestures to the people he’s obviously referring to, “that just means I’ll have to try and convince you to love Christmas.”

After that, they have a movie afternoon watching movies voted by the majority vote, which ends up being one Christmas movie and a recent action film that gets turned off halfway through after Jisung gets confused by the plot and starts asking too many questions. 

Changbin gets up to get himself some snacks from the kitchen, asking if anyone else wants anything. 

“Make sure you don’t stand in the doorway for too long, or I might have to push someone else onto your mouth,” Jisung cackles at himself, this being the first time someone’s brought up the kiss since it happened the week before.

“What if it was Felix and I under the mistletoe?” Changbin retorts with a smirk, finally trying to beat Jisung at his own game. But sadly the words don’t seem to have any effect on the younger as Jisung shrugs nonchalantly, “I’ll allow it, it’s not like I’m gonna go against the rules of Christmas and break a mistletoe kiss.” 

Changbin throws his hands up in defeat, “you’re unbelievable.” When he returns back into the living room he throws a bag of potato chips at his roommate, and grins in triumph when his target lets out a shriek as it connects to his face.

“I have an idea,” Chan says randomly as Changbin sets himself down and gains the attention of everyone in the room, “since Changbin’s open to the idea of gift giving and receiving this year, why don’t we-” he slaps his thighs in an attempt of a drumroll, heightening the suspense that no one can feel, “-do a secret Santa?” He shakes his hands like jazz hands to try and make the idea look more appealing.

Changbin grimaces at the idea but then comes to like the idea as he realises he then only has to buy one gift compared to seven, “sure.”

Gasps emit from around the room, dramatic shocked looks are plastered onto the faces of Changbin’s friends.

“Is  _ the _ Seo Changbin willingly agreeing to do something festive without being forced to do so?” Minho teases, leaning over Chan and ripping the bag of chips out of Jisung’s hands.

“You guys are way too harsh on him,” Hyunjin defends. Which surprises Changbin as the blond is the person out of their friendship group he’s known the shortest amount of time and talked to the least because Changbin can barely string a sentence together when talking to Hyunjin. But still hearing his  _ crush _ defend him, even if he didn’t have to, makes Changbin feel funny on the inside.

When the reality of Changbin wanting to participate finally sinks in; Jisung and Jeongin send each other smirks and jump straight into action, running around the apartment to find the supplies they need to decide who’s buying for who. Once all eight names are written on scrap pieces of paper and thrown into Felix’s winter bobble hat. Jisung goes around the room and lets each person take a name.

Last to take is Changbin so he doesn’t have a chance to second guess himself when choosing since there’s only one name in the hat. He feels around for the folded up paper, taking it in his grasp and stares at it before opening.

In the back of his mind he hopes he doesn’t get Jeongin, knowing that his youngest roommate will ask for something expensive, like a fucking drone. He also doesn’t wish to draw Felix’s name from the hat; his friend will say that he wants anything and then Changbin spends his entire time thinking of what to get him. And then he has to panic buy the first thing he sees and when Felix opens the store gift wrapped present he ends up hating it, but because he said Changbin can get him anything, he has to smile through the pain and accept the gift. But then again, Felix couldn’t hate anything, so maybe it’s best if he picks his name. 

Changbin watches as all his other friends take a sneak peak at who they got, shielding the paper from those sitting next to them, then smiling at the name when they see it.

Knowing he has to eventually see who he pulled from the draw because he’ll end up losing the piece of paper if he doesn’t check who it is. He prays that he doesn’t get Jeongin, now deciding he wants Felix’s name. 

But when he unfolds the paper, the name he sees written in Jisung’s scrawled out handwriting is a name he doesn’t prepare for, a name that is somehow worse than any other option. A name that makes Changbin pause for a moment and consider whether agreeing to this was a good thing.

_ Hyunjin. _

  
  
  


-

  
  
  


As much as his friends insisted, Changbin doesn’t actually hate Christmas. In fact, he had just as much excitement as his roommates over the holiday when he was a kid. But once he grew up he naturally lost the childlike Christmas spirit he once had. 

Which is why it makes no sense why Changbin applied for his current job. Seeing an online ad for a job in the local department store, Changbin would’ve just scrolled past it without a second thought, but then he saw the job requirements; or in this case, the height requirements and decided to apply. 

Wanting people under 5’8 as the main requirement for the job, Changbin, who has always felt confident with his height found no issues with admitting his height. If anything, it made the group of applicants smaller, and how Changbin got the job shortly after. 

So here he is, dressed as an elf, greeting the next child in line to sit on the lap of the department store Santa and tell him what they want for Christmas. His work uniform goes all out, accessorised with an elf hat that jingles every time Changbin moves his head. 

From his ‘intimidating’ - Jeongin’s words - appearance, one might think that Changbin wouldn’t be good at the job. But Changbin secretly has a soft spot for kids and with each child he says hello using a forced cute voice; depending on their age, and sends them off with a bright smile 

He hasn’t told anyone he knows about the job because he knows he’ll never hear the end of it. So everytime he leaves the apartment or declines meeting up in the group chat he makes up some excuse like he’s going to the gym or he’ll spend the day to focus on his studies. 

“Thank you Mr Elf,” a little girl with her hair tied up in pigtails and looks no older than five smiles up at Changbin. He internally winces at the name but keeps up his act as ‘Mr Elf, “You’re welcome, have a merry Christmas.” 

Near the end of his shift, the amount of kids stopping by starts to dwindle, leaving Changbin to stare out from Santa’s Grotto to the department store, watching as all the customers rush to buy gifts for their loved ones despite there still being two weeks until Christmas.

Changbin’s customer watching gets interrupted when he locks his gaze on a familiar figure. Looking at the accessories available to buy, dressed in a long tweed brown coat is Hyunjin.

From where he’s standing, his friend can’t see him, but he could easily turn around and they’d make eye contact. And just his luck, Hyunjin walks around the corner to another aisle and stops in his tracks when he sees Changbin. 

Changbin wonders if his blush is visible underneath the pink blush that’s been applied to the apple of his cheeks before his shift started. 

“Hey,” Hyunjin struggles to control his giggles, “it’s-um nice to see you here.”

“It’s okay you can laugh,” Changbin rolls his eyes and listens as Hyunjin bursts out into high pitched laughter. 

When Hyunjin stops and controls his breathing he trails his eyes over Changbin’s outfit, “very cute,” he murmurs, “how come I didn’t know you worked here?”

“That’s because no one knows I work here,” Changbin says matter of factly, “and I’d like for it to stay that way, so if you don’t tell the guys I’d appreciate it.”

“Your secret is safe with me…” Hyunjin leans forward and squints as he tries to read the name tag pinned to his uniform, “...Mr Elf.”

If Changbin wasn’t at work he would playfully push the younger but since there’s people of higher authority all around him all he can do is throw him a fake smile. 

“Are you interested in telling Santa what you want for Christmas?” He gestures to the grotto behind him. 

Hyunjin lifts up the gifts in his hands, “sadly, I’m gonna have to decline this time, I only came here to buy presents.”

Changbin sees the pair of leather gloves on show in a box held in Hyunjin’s hands that cost more than Changbin makes in a day, “ooh~ is this for your secret Santa?”

“I will neither agree nor deny that question, the whole point is that it’s supposed to remain a secret.” 

Changbin huffs, he hates secrets and not being able to know everything that’s going on. He’s already tried multiple times to coax out of Jisung and Jeongin who they’re buying presents for. But sadly they are both good at keeping their mouths shut for once, even after Changbin tickled the two of them for five minutes straight. 

“What time does your shift finish?” Hyunjin asks, making Changbin look back at him, the bell on his hat jingling as he does so. 

“In ten minutes.” Changbin answers him.

Hyunjin’s face lights up, “Great, let me just go pay for this and I can meet you outside.”

“Um, okay,” Changbin mumbles, wondering why Hyunjin would want to meet him. He doesn’t get the chance to say anything else as Hyunjin is already waving goodbye at him and walking away to the checkouts.

Less than twenty minutes later Changbin is rushing out of the department store to meet Hyunjin. It takes him slightly longer to meet the other due to a child rushing to meet Santa just as Changbin was closing the area. But one set of puppy eyes later and Changbin’s letting the small boy through, making him rush to get out of the door.

As he pushes the revolving door open with his backpack containing his uniform on his back, he sees Hyunjin standing outside. He’s bouncing up and down slightly on the balls of his feet, probably because of the cold temperatures, with a small paper bag in his hand of the items that he bought.

“Hey,” he greets him, face lighting up in most likely relief from not having to wait in one spot in the cold anymore.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” Changbin apologises, “there was a kid that wanted to go into the grotto last minute and then my outfit got stuck when trying to get it off-”

“No worries,” Hyunjin waves him off, they start walking down the street, avoiding people who are rushing past them, “do you have anywhere you need to be?”

Usually after work, Changbin would go straight home, the department store wasn’t far from his apartment so he would enjoy the short walk to make it home just in time to have dinner with whoever was over at his apartment at the time. He tells Hyunjin as such, watching as the taller nods and then bites his lip in hesitation before asking, “would you like to go for a walk? With me?”

Changbin jumps out of the way of a mother frantically pushing a baby stroller, “but we are walking,” he says with fake confusion and a smirk on his face, gesturing to their feet then forward to the sidewalk.

“Okay, don’t be a smart ass,” Hyunjin shoves him playfully to the side, but quickly pulls him back when Changbin almost bumps into a elderly couple. They apologise quickly and speed walk away so they don’t have to face the repercussions. 

“But yes, Hwang Hyunjin I’d love to go on a walk with you. Is there anywhere in particular you had in mind?”

“There’s that ice rink a couple blocks away that they only have for winter.”

Changbin’s eyes widen, the last time he went ice skating was when he was barely a teenager and he spent the entire time trying to stand upright, vowing to never go back on an ice rink for as long as possible. Which he’s kept his word to this day. 

“I can see the look of fear in your eyes,” Hyunjin laughs, “don’t worry we won’t be ice skating, but there’s a really cute stall at the Christmas fayre that sells the most amazing hot chocolate.”

“Oh,” Changbin breathes out a sigh of relief, the last thing he’d want is to embarrass himself in front of Hyunjin. “Hot chocolate sounds good.”

“Great,” Hyunjin beams whilst tucking some of his hair behind his ear, “I didn’t want to assume you’d be the type of guy who refuses to have anything sweet.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that I’m very sweet,” Changbin says pointedly, shoving an accusing finger in the younger’s direction. 

“Yeah,” Hyunjin says quietly, likes he’s meant to be saying the words to himself, but Changbin still faintly hears them, “you are.”

  
  
  


-

  
  
  


When they make it to the cute, wooden stall, it’s one amongst the many others that sell hot drinks and other items related to the upcoming holiday. The queue for this particular stall has at least twenty people standing in front of them. Changbin suggests just going to another stall that sells hot chocolate but Hyunjin grabs a hold of his arm and insists that the wait is worth it. 

With no ounce of his being is able to say no to Hyunjin, Changbin just remains silent and waits alongside him as they hear the multiple sounds of the people around them, including those currently enjoying the ice rink. 

Fortunately the line goes down quickly and before they know it they’re at the front being greeted by an overly excited woman who points at the menu above her. 

“I thought we were getting hot chocolate, why do I have to look at a menu?” Changbin asks but does so anyway. 

Hyunjin shakes his head and tuts in mock disappointment, “Oh Changbin, the reason why we’re at this particular stall is because they offer fifteen different flavours of hot chocolate.”

“Fifteen,” he parrots, he didn’t even realise it was possible to make that many flavours.

“I think this time I’m going to try an oreo hot chocolate. Changbin?” Hyunjin turns to him with an eyebrow raised. Changbin is still trying to decide what to get, he’s always been indecisive and this is one of those times.

“Um, I’ll get the mint hot chocolate,” he says to the woman behind the stall before he changes his mind.

They pay for their drinks and get them not long after. They find a picnic bench free and go over to sit at it. Changbin immediately finds warmth as he wraps his hands around the paper cup, the sweet combination of mint and chocolate hits him. He blows the steam away from the cup and takes a sip. Hyunjin was right to take them to this particular stall because the hot chocolate is the best Changbin’s ever tasted. 

“Okay, I have a very serious question to ask you,” Hyunjin says from across the table where he has his own hot drink resting between his hands. The seriousness of his voice makes Changbin put down his drink and look him in the eye to show that he’s listening.

“Who the fuck likes mint chocolate?”

“That’s the question?” Changbin lets out a sigh of relief that the question wasn’t something heavy-hearted. 

“Yes. Seriously, eating mint chocolate is like eating chocolatey toothpaste, and having it in a drink-” Hyunjin fake gags, “-bleh, disgusting.”

Changbin laughs at his childishness, “It’s actually really nice, do you wanna try?” He brings the cup to Hyunjin’s face over the table and lets out little taunts for his friend to try it. 

Hyunjin dramatically pinches his nose to stop the smell from reaching him and with his other hand tries his best to bat the cup of abomination away without spilling it. Changbin only stops when Hyunjin almost falls off the bench with a shriek, causing both of them to laugh. 

“I can’t believe that we’re the exact opposites,” Hyunjin states after he takes a sip of his oreo hot chocolate, “you hate Christmas and like mint chocolate, I think I’m nearing my breaking point.”

Changbin forced his gaze from the other, his eyes are fixated on Hyunjin’s lips around the rim of the cup, the same pair of lips that Changbin’s felt against his own. “I don’t hate Christmas,” he rolls his eyes at yet another accusation of him hating the winter holiday, “I just don’t see the hype over it.”

“What?” Hyunjin seems baffled, “I know it’s mainly seen as gifts and an old man in a red suit but who doesn’t love sitting in the cold with a hot chocolate to keep you warm-”

“-me, I don’t love it.” Changbin replies dryly, even shivering exaggeratedly to prove his point.

Hyunjin points a finger at him, “you’re full of shit, you love this.” Okay, so maybe Changbin did kinda like it but it had nothing to do with the atmosphere and more the company he has.

“Anyway and then there’s snow with snowmen and snowwomen and snowpeople and snowball fights. It’s the perfect time of year for friendship and romance-”

“-Oh god-”

“Hey! No romance judgement.” He exclaims with a pout, “But like, imagine getting confessed to at Christmas time with snow falling and carolers all around you and the guy who you’re in love with confesses that he loves you too and then you kiss and live happily ever after.”

He has a dreamy look in his eyes, all focus gone as he stares into the distance thinking about his dream confession. If Changbin were a little more confident he would take note of what Hyunjin just said.  _ It’s me, I’m the guy who wants to confess to you underneath Christmas lights and snowflakes and sweep you off your feet,  _ he thinks to himself.

“I think you’ve been watching too many cheesy Christmas movies,” he says instead.

This clearly didn’t settle well with Hyunjin, “well,  _ I _ think that you need to take a good look around you and feel the Christmas spirit.”

They bicker back and forth about how Changbin needs to build a snowman as soon as it starts snowing until they finish their drinks. They throw away their trash into the recycling bin and walk more around the area. It’s not even that late into the evening but because of the time of year it’s already dark out, making it feel like Changbin’s out on a late night walk with Hyunjin when in reality it’s barely 8pm.

It doesn’t register for Changbin that this is the first time that he’s been alone with Hyunjin that’s longer than five minutes and outside of his apartment, and honestly he’s surprised that he hasn’t managed to trip over his own feet or accidentally word vomit that he finds Hyunjin the most beautiful person he’s ever seen.

“Jisung mentioned we should all come here next week. Think he said something about wanting to see Felix look like Bambi on ice at the ice rink. Are you going?” Hyunjin asks as they pass a stall selling oddly named scents of Christmas candles.

“Have you seen who I live? Of course I’m going whether I want to or not.” Changbin would much rather spend his Saturday evening in the warmth of his own apartment, but he knows regardless of how much he puts up a fight, it won’t be an even fight when up against his two roommates.

“Good. I don’t think it’ll be the same if you aren’t there.”

Changbin opens and closes his mouth like a fish, unable to find words, perhaps he’s overthinking the meaning behind his words.

Hyunjin must’ve seen the look of Changbin’s, because he quickly retracks his words as soon as he says them, spluttering out a cough he says, “I mean, us lonely single ones have to stick together, huh. You can’t leave me alone to be a seventh wheel, that’s just tragic.”

“Yeah, though Chan and Minho claim they aren’t a couple, so technically you’re only fifth wheeling.” Of course Hyunjin would just see him as a friend, he doesn’t know what hurts more; basically being friendzoned or thinking he somewhat had a chance in the first place.

“Oh please, I bet they’re gonna either admit that they’re already dating or will get together before the end of the year.”

Changbin agrees with him, “they make it totally obvious that they like each other, if they aren’t already dating one of them should just confess already. Why hang about and deal with the do we/don’t we like each other bullshit, when they could be dating this entire time.”

He realises what he’s just said, it sounds too familiar of another situation other than Chan and Minho’s. He finds himself a hypocrite suggesting for others to just confess like it’s no big deal, when he himself can’t confess to the man he likes.

Discreetly rolling his eyes to himself, he wonders if he’s really talking about advice to give to Chan and Minho or to himself? 

  
  
  


-

  
  
  


It isn’t his idea at all, in fact he’d rather the idea not be executed at all. But he knows he has to stay at home and babysit the double-trouble, also known as Jisung and Felix when they said they wanted to bake Christmas cookies.

Now their kitchen might not be the best and the their toaster might be four slices of toast away from dying on them but Changbin would rather the kitchen didn’t end up in flames, especially knowing that his roommate and his boyfriend can barely keep their hands off each other and would be the cause of said kitchen fire. Hence why he’s sitting in his living room on standby in case anything goes wrong.

He’s sat alongside Seungmin, and for once he’s having a conversation that doesn’t involve snow or Santa or Rudolph the fucking red nose reindeer.

“Do you think Jeongin would like a cushion with my face on it for Christmas?” Okay, so maybe not.

Changbin sighs, but answers his friend anyway because he’s not a dickhead, “Wait, is this for secret Santa or are you getting him a present regardless?”

Seungmin’s eyes widen in panic, “shit, I wasn’t supposed to mention that.”

So Seungmin is buying for Jeongin, that’s one person he knows who’s buying for who. Without success, Changbin is still trying to figure out who is buying for him, his bet is on Felix. But speaking of Secret Santa, Changbin hasn’t even thought about what to get Hyunjin, does he get him a joke gift like a pair of socks or does he get him something more sentimental; that has the subtle hint of ‘hey I’m kinda in love with you, please understand that through this gift’.

“Don’t worry Seung, I won’t tell anyone that you accidentally let it slip, I’ll pretend I never heard it. Though Jeongin did mention the other week that he would like that.”

“Like what?” Seungmin genuinely asks, confusion on his face. From across the room, Changbin rolls his eyes and sends him a look. “Oh,” realisation settles on his face, “thanks.”

Shortly after, Seungmin leaves him alone to join his boyfriend where he was taking a nap in his room. Now left to himself, Changbin entertains himself on his phone while keeping an eye out to make sure there’s no kitchen fire. 

He makes himself comfortable with a Changbin sized dent into the sofa when he hears a knock from the front door. 

“Changbin you get it,” Jisung calls from the kitchen. 

He gets up without complaint, “who the fuck keeps knocking when we leave the door unlocked?”

Just when he thinks that life has stopped throwing him into awkward situations, the scowl on his face immediately melts away into a sheepish one as he opens the door once again to Hyunjin.

“It’s more polite to knock when you’re a guest,” Hyunjin says as he clears his throat to mask his embarrassed blush and Changbin is so mortified that he wants the ground to swallow him whole.

“I’m so sorry,” he apologises, letting the other in, “I’m just so used to everyone walking straight in.”

Hyunjin takes off his coat and hangs it up on the coat rack, stepping over the other coats that lie thrown onto the floor, “No need to apologise, I know for next time to just barge in unannounced.”

Jisung walks out of the kitchen at the same time Hyunjin enters the living room. Upon seeing their friend, he leans up to give the blond a hug, “Jinnie you finally made it, we just got the cookies out of the oven so they should be good in around ten minutes. Bin, I’m putting all my faith into you, don’t let me and Lixie down.”

Changbin looks between the two of them, as always he has no idea what’s going on because his roommates don’t tell him anything. “What are you talking about? I thought you wanted me to make sure you and Lix don’t burn down the apartment and then when you were done, I was gonna go to my room and binge watch that new Netflix show Jeongin won’t shut up about.”

Jisung clasps his hands with a close lipped smile, “that’s where you’re wrong, buddy, I invited Jinnie over to decorate the most amazing cookies ever made and  _ you’re _ going to help him.”

As soon as the word buddy left Jisung’s mouth, Changbin inwardly curled up and cringed, “okay, first of all, never call me buddy again if you still want a place to live. Secondly, I am not at all in any way decorative, so I think I’m the worst person to ask to help, unless you want them to look shit.”

“Just try your best Changbin and if they look shit then we can just say that a kid decorated them?” His roommate throws his hands up with a shrug, making his way back into the kitchen, “Lixie you better not be eating the cookies.”

“What kid?” Changbin calls out after him.

Jisung turns in the doorway of the kitchen, in the same exact spot that haunts Changbin with many flashbacks whenever he looks at Hyunjin. He shrugs his shoulders, “I don’t know Changbin, I’m trying to make you feel better.”

“I was hoping you’d be good at decorating.” Hyunjin says from beside him.

“Why’s that?”

“Because I’m also awful at decorating.” He says with a laugh.

Changbin laughs with him, “wow, Jisung didn’t know what he was signing himself up for.”

Turns out that Changbin and Hyunjin weren’t lying when they said they had no skill in decorating baked goods. The Christmas tree shaped cookies Jisung and Felix made actually look like what they’re supposed to be and didn’t expand into mass shapes of disastrous cookie shapes. That is until Changbin and Hyunjin stepped into the kitchen with shaky hands and a love for eating the icing straight from the bag.

“You’ve got something,” Hyunjin demonstrates wiping at the corner of his mouth with his thumb. Changbin stops sprinkling chocolate chips onto the cookies to put his hand over his mouth and attempts to get the icing off. He knew he shouldn’t have eaten icing knowing that he would make a mess of himself. “Is it gone?”

Hyunjin smiles softly at him and takes a step towards him, “no, somehow you’ve made it worse.” He brings his hand up toward Changbin’s face and his breath hitches as Hyunjin brushes his thumb to pick up the icing around his mouth, slowly dragging it across part of his bottom lip. 

When he removes his touch, Changbin watches with wide eyes as Hyunjin then brings his thumb to his own mouth and licks the icing off. 

Of course the action makes Changbin fixate onto Hyunjin’s lips, it’s like everything around him is a blur and all he can focus on is the beautiful man in front of him. 

He feels like he’s in a dream, there’s no way that this could be real. Especially when it seems like Hyunjin is leaning down, his eyes flitting between Changbin’s eyes and his lips. 

Changbin isn’t going to stop him, in fact he leans up a little himself. Is he actually going to kiss Hyunjin properly this time, without the mistletoe and meddling roommates? 

With his eyes closed, Changbin can feel Hyunjin’s breath ghosting his lips, his hands clenched tight in anticipation. 

“Are you two getting sensual in the kitchen?”

Hearing Jeongin’s voice makes Changbin jerk backwards so quickly that he crashes into the kitchen bench. The pain in his lower back can’t be felt over how hard his heart is beating in his chest. 

Jeongin is still standing there, eyes wide slightly as he didn’t expect that kind of reaction but still amusement shows on his face, “we’ve all been waiting for the cookies and when you two took too long I came to see what was happening. Didn’t expect to be interrupting anything, so my bad.” He sends them a wink and leaves swiftly. 

They quickly add the finishing touches to their decorating with Hyunjin making little quips as if they weren’t centimetres away from kissing just moments ago. 

Changbin basically throws the cookies onto a plate, his mind far away thinking about how it was Hyunjin who instigated the kiss and what the fuck that means. 

Does Hyunjin like him too? 

“Changbin, where’s the fucking cookies?” Jisung yells to him through the apartment, his voice loud enough to travel the expanse of the apartment. 

Changbin huffs out a sigh as he picks up the plate, “I have your fucking cookies.” He places them down onto the table and just manages to step back in time as multiple hands fight to grab the treats before they’re all gone. 

“These look like shit but taste so good,” Jeongin moans around half of the cookie stuffed in his mouth. 

Changbin wants to make a snarky comment but chooses not to, instead choosing to watch his friends act like vultures and communicate with cookies in their mouths. 

When Minho and Chan arrive long after all the cookies are gone, they stand next to each other, not sitting down and joining everyone which garners their attention. 

The pair seem coy as they stand with their hands intertwined. They have their heads ducked down in anticipation, but no one in the room says anything because nothing seems out of the ordinary. 

“Why are you guys just standing there?” Seungmin asks, being the first to acknowledge out loud why their friends are acting weird even if their actions were normal. 

“We’re...holding hands,” Chan says slowly, even lifting up his and Minho’s clasped hands to physically show them all.

“Okay…” Seungmin looks around the room to see if everyone else is experiencing the same confusion as him, “but you guys always hold hands.”

Whenever the two roommates were with everyone else they always were latched onto each other, whether it being holding hands or a subtle pinky link. But even if they weren’t physically touching they were always beside one another, to the point that they were associated as a pair and came as a package deal.

Chan clears his throat, a light pink blush dusting his cheeks, “yeah, but now we’re holding hands romantically.”

“Wait so you guys weren’t dating beforehand?” Felix looks the most confused out of everyone.

“What?” Minho splutters, his face turning a much darker shade of pink than Chan’s, “No! Chan and I have always been just friends. You really thought we were dating?”

“Yes,” Felix exclaims, “you two would always go on double dates with Ji and I.” He turns to his boyfriend for confirmation.

“That’s right, you literally joined us when we would go to restaurants for the special couple meals.” Jisung confirms.

“That was for the discount,” Minho protests.

“Okay, okay, but tell us what happened to make you guys realise that you’ve been in love with each other this whole time,” Hyunjin changes the conversation to let the new couple in their friendship group gush over their relationship.

The two lovebirds make themselves comfortable, squished up sitting next to one another, hands still intertwined and Minho’s head resting on Chan’s shoulder. 

They playfully bicker for a moment over who should tell the story and it looks so domestic that everyone coos at the sight of them. But for Changbin, who is painfully single and pining, finds the whole scene nauseating. 

“Okay, I’ll tell the story,” Chan laughs, wrapping an arm around Minho’s shoulder to bring him even more closer to his side. “I’m guessing that you were sort of aware that I was in love with Minho-”

“It was obvious.”

“Yep, we knew.”

Everyone unanimously nods in agreement, it was known by everyone how much Chan was in love with Minho and they also knew how much the love is reciprocated.

Chan gets overwhelmed by the mass agreement, visibly becoming shy, “oh- well anyway, I’d been working up the courage to confess to him but then I kept chickening out. But a couple nights ago when we were having our weekly roommate movie night-”

“Date night,” Jeongin mutters under his breath, quiet enough that Chan didn’t hear it.

“-I just kinda confessed, but with the fairy lights around us and some shitty horror film playing in the background it felt romantic.”

“Really? A horror movie?” Changbin pipes up for the first time in a while, he’s happy for his friends; really happy. He’s just more surprised that the whole time he’s known them acting like they were in love they were just friends.

Minho smiles at Chan, a love stricken look on his face, “yeah, it honestly felt perfect. Plus, everyone knows that Christmas time is the perfect time for love and confessions, valentine's day is so old school now. Snuggled up in a blanket while the love of your life confesses to you with the lights of your christmas tree reflecting in his eyes? Yes please.”

From across the room Changbin can feel Hyunjin’s heavy gaze on him, he glances at him from the corner of his eye and sees that his suspicions are true. They make eye contact and Hyunjin holds up seven fingers, “seventh wheel,” he mouths with wide and exaggerated movements.

He’s not wrong, now he and Hyunjin are the only ones who are single in their friendship group, reiterating what Hyunjin previously said about them needing to stick together. Especially now since it’s been confirmed true.

Changbin continues to gaze over at Hyunjin who is now wistfully looking at Chan and Minho. The way Minho was confessed to is similar in the way that Hyunjin wants someone to sweep him off his feet during the holidays.

Changbin so desperately wants to be that person for Hyunjin, to confess to him as snow falls with carolers and lights in the background that fade away when they make eye contact and Changbin finally says what he’s been wanting to say all year.

But Changbin is too shy to do any of that, and there’s no chance that Hyunjin will like him back.

  
  
  


-

  
  
  


The first snowfall of the season happens eight days before Christmas, Changbin was on his way back home for work when his phone blew up from texts in the group chat animatedly chatting saying that they could all see the snow. 

Changbin had even managed to contribute with a quick message of a snowflake emoji before pocketing his phone and continuing his journey home. 

Usually the first snowfall doesn’t lay on the ground and disappears by the next morning. But as if by some Christmas miracle, this Winter the first time snow fell, it stayed and dusted the city with a light coating of white to make it truly look like a winter wonderland. 

Which is convenient because the Christmas fayre looks even more festive with snow coating the ground and every other surface. 

“Oh my god, it’s freezing,” Changbin complains, he adjusts the scarf around his neck to attempt to keep some warmth. Maybe he should’ve also brought a hat with him before he left. 

He’ll admit the city looks pretty now with the addition of snow but with it brought a big decrease in temperature and he’s starting to lose the feeling in his fingers. 

“Changbin stop complaining and look at the pretty lights,” Jisung tells him sternly from where he has Felix wrapped up in his arms. Changbin’s too cold to respond with a witty remark so he just folds his arms across his chest and huffs to himself.

As he’s been dragged to the Christmas fayre for the past few years he’s known Jeongin and Jisung, he’s used to the same old festivities that comes with the yearly event. But this year the city has seemed to have outdone themselves with amping up the visuals. All around them the area is decorated with lights, a small stage has been built for performances where currently there’s carolers singing a over the top version of Rudoph the rednosed reindeer. The main attraction of the place is the twenty foot Christmas tree that is a bit of an eye sore with the way the lights that are wrapped around it’s branches change colour slowly then flash aggressively where Changbin squints and turns away to look away from them. 

Naturally the couples of their friendship group want to go off on their own, Jeongin and Seungmin run off to the stalls to try and eat as many samples as they can before getting banned, while Jisung and Felix don’t turn back to say bye as they run off to the ice rink. Minho and Chan give Changbin and Hyunjin a sheepish look, muttering an apology before they swiftly walk away with their hands entwined.

“So~” Hyunjin drawls out awkwardly next to him, “are you up for more hot chocolate?”

Changbin turns to him and raises his eyebrow playfully, “that depends, will you judge me if I have another mint hot chocolate?”

Hyunjin attempts to raise his own eyebrow to mirror Changbin’s, when he fails to grasp the same look he’s giving him he pouts as he blows air out of his nose in defeat. Then his face morphs into a smirk, he link’s his arm around Changbin’s elbow and directs them towards the infamous stall, “Oh I absolutely will, you need to try another flavour, literally anything but mint chocolate. If you don’t choose mint I’ll pay for your drink.”

The concept of a free drink peaks Changbin’s interest, “Well then, I can’t say no to a pretty boy buying me a drink.” He realises what he says before he can take back the words, his breath hitches as he stammers to try and come up with a sentence or apology but before he can do so, Hyunjin squeezes his arm a little bit tighter, a huge grin taking over his face, “great,” he beams, “lets go.”

Just like the last time Hyunjin led Changbin to the stall, it has a queue longer than any other stall at the fayre. As they wait Changbin decides to ask the younger if he’s bought a present for his Secret Santa recipient.

“Yup,” he replies simply, giving no detail of what he bought.

Changbin rocks back and forth on his feet, “what did you buy him? You can tell me, I’m good at keeping secrets.”

“I’m sure you are,” he boops Changbin on his nose and giggles at his reaction, “but I heard from a little birdie that that’s not entirely true.”

Whipping his head to face Hyunjin, Changbin scoffs in disbelief, “who said that? Was it Jisung? It was totally Jisung. It had to have been. Well he’s very much wrong because I’ve not told anyone about his One Direction phase.” He covers his mouth with his hand after he just word vomited and told a secret, contradicting what he said about being good at keeping them.

“You didn’t hear that,” he states with widened eyes as he points a somewhat threatening finger at Hyunjin.

The blond doesn’t take Changbin’s threat to heart, chuckling as he pushes his hand down, “don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. Now I’m definitely not telling you, but~ I will give you a little bit of a spoiler.” He leans down to whisper in Changbin’s ear, his breath sending shivers down his spine, “you’ll probably use it every day.” He pulls back and giggles when he sees Changbin’s unsatisfied face.

“You’re no fun, that could literally be anything.” He says, already thinking of things it could be.

Hyunjin pushes his cheeks up with his hand, “turn that frown upside-down. Okay, as a sorry for being mean I’ll pay for your drink, regardless if you get a mint hot chocolate or not. Sound good?”

Changbin smiles for real, “I would like that very much.”

They take their drinks that Hyunjin pays for and move away from the crowd. Hyunjin moves his hand from the crook of Changbin’s elbow, down his arm until he places his hand in his. The sudden action makes Changbin almost trip over his own feet it was so unexpected. 

“Can’t lose you in the crowd, now, can I.”

Of course, Hyunjin is holding his hand platonically. Once again Changbin gets ahead of himself. But the two of them holding hands is worth it because he knows he would definitely get lost if he didn’t have Hyunjin’s larger hand clasped with his.

Further away from the stalls and the crowds is a free bench that they choose to sit on. Mainly because it’s somewhere they can drink their hot chocolate without the chance of someone elbowing them and resulting in a full beverage falling to the floor.

Through sips of hot chocolate they people watch, commenting on who they think are on first dates and who are forced to be out in the cold. 

“Those two over there are definitely on a first date,” Hyunjin discreetly points to a young man and woman, who appear to be hesitant as they stand next to each other silently. 

Changbin shakes his head in disagreement, “Hyunjin, they’re definitely siblings.”

“What?”

“Look at their faces, they look alike.”

Hyunjin is silent for a few seconds as he does a double take, “okay, maybe you’re right.”

Hyunjin finishes his drink first and Changbin finishes shortly after. From the corner of his eye, he can see Hyunjin fiddling with the ends of his sleeves. A sign that the younger is cold and is eager to get back to the fayre and see the other parts he’s yet to see. 

“We can just stay here until the others find us-”

“No, let’s go back over there.” Changbin stands up, turning back to see if Hyunjin will follow him, “you obviously don’t want to wait sitting here in the cold, plus we haven’t even looked at half the fayre.”

Hyunjin joins him without hesitation, almost jumping up. He has a new energy surrounding him as he grabs onto Changbin’s hand and pulls him behind him as they walk back into the crowds. Unable to see the goofy grin Changbin has on his face just from the feeling of holding hands with Hyunjin.

He finds it hard to believe but Changbin actually enjoys himself at the fayre. He gets tempted when he sees a bunch of Christmas themed carnival games. Where Changbin and Hyunjin both claim they’re going to try and win a prize for the other. After many, many tries, both of them come out empty handed. 

“I swear it’s rigged,” Hyunjin complains, pouting.

Changbin just laughs at him, leaning up to ruffle his hair, “Don’t be a sore loser, Hyunjinnie. There’s always next year.”

“I didn’t want to win anyway.” Hyunjin huffs. A total lie, Changbin thinks.

They walk around a bit more until they’re standing at the back of the crowd, away from the mass amount of people, watching the performance from a local school. They can’t be any older than ten, singing Christmas tunes complete with hand actions that has the entire crowd cooing. 

From the corner of his eye, Changbin sees Hyunjin shiver, his friend holding the top of his coat together to cover his neck. While Changbin had only brought a scarf with him for extra warmth, Hyunjin hadn’t brought any winter accessories with him. 

When his teeth start to chatter, Changbin doesn’t hesitate to take the scarf off from around his neck, “here.”

Hyunjin starts to protest as Changbin raises his arms to wrap the pink scarf securely around his neck, but it’s no use as the older pats his chest in affirmation and takes a step back to admire the way the colour of the scarf compliments the pink on Hyunjin’s face.

He reaches up to cup his cheeks, earning a squeak out of Hyunjin, “Jinnie your cheeks are so pink, just admit you’re cold and wear the scarf.”

“Look’s like we’ve got ourselves a cute couple under the mistletoe,” a woman calls out, gathering the attention of the people around her. Everyone looks around to see where the mistletoe is placed. Even Changbin becomes curious and glances around to see which couple he’ll have to watch kiss under the mistletoe.

“Erm- Changbin,” Hyunjin murmurs his name softly under his breath. He appears timid as he plays with the rings on his fingers, his hair shadows over his face as he looks down, “the mistletoe.” He says ominously.

Changbin frowns at the vagueness of the other’s words, why would Hyunjin be acting so shy, unless…

Of course, why hadn’t Changbin realised sooner, he sighs deeply out of his nose and hesitantly looks up and lo and behold dangling above his and Hyunjin’s heads, attached to the dangling overhead lights with duct tape, is a piece of mistletoe.

He looks back at Hyunjin, who’s still looking down and refusing to make eye contact with him. From all around him he can feel multiple pairs of eyes on him and he definitely knows that all of his friends are most likely somewhere nearby, intently watching to see what’ll happen.

Then Hyunjin lifts his head up to look at him, he seems to have the same amount of nervous energy Changbin has.

Whispers can be heard from around them, wondering why they haven’t kissed yet and what’s taking them so long.

Changbin takes a small step towards the younger, he doesn’t want his first proper kiss with Hyunjin to be forced because of fucking mistletoe. He can’t read what Hyunjin’s facial expressions are saying, he doesn’t want to be the kind of guy to kiss Hyunjin when he doesn’t want to be kissed. 

His brain becomes muddled with all the thoughts and scenarios that could happen, he can even hear the fucking carolers still singing in the background.

He barely notices it when Hyunjin leans down slightly. 

Changbin starts to close his eyes when he sees a hand go between them and places itself on Hyunjin’s cheek and turns his face away from him. In what feels like a fever dream, Changbin watches as Jisung grabs Hyunjin by his cheeks and pulls the taller down until their lips connect. Pulling away after a couple seconds with a loud ‘mwah’.

Said fever dream then turns into a nightmare as Jisung lets go of a baffled Hyunjin and pivots to face his roommate with a mischievous smirk. Similarly to what he did with Hyunjin, Jisung cups Changbin’s face in his hands and also connects their lips. 

After living with Jisung for almost two years, Changbin is used to the younger’s odd and eccentric actions. He’s had to deal with the hangovers and the jokes and Jisung’s over the top affection towards him when he’s drunk. So it’s not a new feeling for Changbin to be the recipient of Jisung’s affection, but this is the first time it’s happening when both of them are sober.

Jisung proudly steps back with his arms spread out widely as he flashes them his heart-shaped smile.

“Jisung wha-what the literal fuck.” Changbin stutters, looking between him and Hyunjin who appears to be even more bewildered.

“You two were taking too long once again under the mistletoe,” Jisung reasons, “I can’t just stand by and let you two ruin the spirit of Christmas and not participate in a Christmas tradition.”

Changbin’s eyes widen even more at his explanation, he turns to Felix who is a couple feet behind Jisung, “and you’re okay with this?”

He expects Felix to be in tears or at least be somewhat mad, but his friend just rolls his eyes and grabs his boyfriends hand, “obviously,” he scoffs, “it would’ve been me kissing you both if Jisung didn’t get to you first. You can’t just fuck about and not kiss under the mistletoe, that’s absurd.”

Well atleast Changbin isn’t the reason for a couples tiff tonight. 

In all fairness, Changbin isn’t mad at Jisung, if anything he did him a favour. He’d rather watch as Jisung kisses Hyunjin and then himself than be pressured to kiss Hyunjin.

The excitement of the mistletoe dies down and people go back to enjoying the fayre leaving Changbin and his friends to themselves.

“Why can’t we just have one evening without gaining everyone’s attention,” Chan teases, he looks at Jisung as he says it, making the other gasp dramatically while placing a hand over his chest. “Chan, I did what I had to do for the good of Christmas.”

Chan rolls his eyes, “first I had to go to the ice rink because you and Felix made a kid cry cause you weren’t looking at your surroundings when you were skating and I had to deal with the angry parents. Then I got a call off Seungmin cause he and Jeongin were in Santa Jail because they stole an entire tray of Christmas cookie samples.” He pinches the bridge of his nose, “I just wanted a nice evening with my boyfriend.”

“You love us though.” Jeongin pouts.

“Yeah yeah, don’t push it. Now, everyone be on your best behaviour for the rest of the night, please.”

  
  
  


-

  
  
  


It’s an understatement when Changbin says he’s nervous about giving Hyunjin his Secret Santa present. 

He wouldn’t call it a last minute purchase, Changbin just so happened to buy it a couple days ago. But he’s had the idea of the gift for a while. His main problem now is hoping that Hyunjin likes it. 

“Who wants to go first?” Jeongin questions as he sits down next to his boyfriend.

“I will,” Jumping up, Jisung doesn’t give anyone else a chance to nominate themself first and runs to the presents laying under the Christmas tree. He searches for the one with his name on it and picks it up gleefully. 

Impatient, he rips the paper off, gasping when he sees the black snuggie tied with a bow. “You should unwrap your present.” He tells his boyfriend. Felix smiles as he does what Jisung just did and unwraps an identical snuggie, except this one is pink. 

“We didn’t plan this,” they tell the rest of their friends, “I guess we just know each other too well.” Felix leans over to give his boyfriend a quick peck on the lips. 

The gift giving goes on, the rest of Changbin’s friends open their gifts. Each reacting with excitement as they receive something that they claimed they wanted. Then the only people left are Changbin and Hyunjin. 

Changbin plays with the sleeves of the ugly Christmas jumper he’s wearing. The small box that’s wrapped in decorative wrapping paper and a label with Hyunjin’s name on it sits under the tree. 

“Do you want to go first?” Hyunjin asks him, the flashing lights from his Christmas jumper illuminate his face, momentarily distracting Changbin. He shakes his head and points to the present, “no it’s okay, you can go first.”

Hyunjin doesn’t put up a fight, grinning like he was secretly hoping that’s how Changbin would answer. He grabs the gift, turns the label around to try and decipher who it’s from based on the handwriting. 

He gently rips the paper away, leaving a velvet box the size of his palm. Hyunjin’s lips jut out, he scans the room and Changbin freezes. Anticipating Hyunjin’s reaction, he hopes the younger likes the gift. 

Popping open the box, Hyunjin gasps at what he sees inside, “who got me this? This must’ve been way too expensive, I don’t deserve this.”

_ You do _ , Changbin wants to reply, but keeps his mouth shut because he’s supposed to remain anonymous. 

Hyunjin traces his finger over the pendant, seeming entranced by the by gold chained necklace.

Changbin hopes that Hyunjin can understand the feelings he tried to convey through the gift. He had many options to choose from at the shop but went with the pendant in the shape of a heart that is made with petals of dried red roses. Thinking that it will have just the right amount of subtlety for Hyunjin to understand how he feels.

“Right, Bin you’re last. Then we can finally reveal who bought what.” Jisung claps him on the back, pulling him out of his locked gaze on Hyunjin.

He stands up to pick up the remaining last present under the tree. The small present in his lap has a weight to it, so Changbin can’t figure out what it is. Being the impatient man he is, he rips the paper off. Only to find a plain brown box. He opens that to reveal a large mug. 

Taking it out of the box, Changbin inspects the mug, what he doesn’t expect to find is there to be a picture printed around the entirety of the mug. 

Changbin turns it to view it from all angles, a smile spreading on his face as he looks at the picture. Whoever bought him the gift chose a photo of the eight of them from the previous summer. They’re standing in front of the pool at a house they rented for the week. Changbin is at the end of the line, with his arm wrapped around Felix’s shoulder. All of them have bright smiles on their faces, even just looking at the photo brings back happy memories for Changbin.

“Thank you,” he smiles at all of his friends, still not knowing who got him the mug.

“Excellent, okay everyone say who you bought for.” Jisung says, thinking the reveal is more fun than the actual opening of presents. “I think it’s obvious that Lixie and I bought for each other, but I swear we didn’t concur on what to buy, we really do know what to get each other.”

It’s revealed that alongside Jisung and Felix buying for each other, so did Chan and Minho, Seungmin and Jeongin, and Changbin and Hyunjin. 

“Damn, it’s such a crazy coincidence that we all picked names that would end up in us being in pairs,” Jisung drawls out with a glint in his eyes. His tone of voice is suspicious, but Changbin doesn’t have any time to think about it as Hyunjin comes over to sit next to him, “thank you for the necklace,” he starts, “it was really sweet of you. Can you help me put it on?” Changbin nods silently as Hyunjin passes him the box and turns around so his back is facing him. Taking the necklace out, Changbin gulps as he raises his arms to lay the necklace on Hyunjin’s chest. He fumbles with the clasp a couple times until he gets the hook through the chain and the heart pendant lies comfortably on top of the Christmas jumper Hyunjin’s wearing.

Changbin moves back to where he was originally sitting, while Hyunjin moves his head at a weird angle to see what the necklace looks like on himself. Changbin just sits there quietly watching him, he really does look so beautiful even when wearing a hideous jumper that has Santa Claus and a snowman holding hands on the front. 

Hyunjin turns back around and Changbin has to pretend that he wasn’t blatantly staring at him. A pout forms on his face, “I feel bad now though because you got me this really nice gift and all I got you was a stupid mug. It’s okay if you don’t like it I-“

“Hyunjin,” Changbin stops him from rambling on any further, “don’t think like that. I actually love the gift you got me.”

“Really?” Hyunjin seems shocked by his answer. “I remembered how your eyes lit up when you looked at the tree decoration, at the picture of you with Jisung and Jeongin, and I thought a picture with all of us would be cute. And who doesn’t love a good mug, am I right? Now you can use it for all the mint hot chocolates you’ll be drinking.” He laughs awkwardly, fiddling with the necklace around his neck, “it sounds silly now when I say it outloud.”

“It’s not silly,” Changbin reassures him, “I really do love it. You could’ve gotten me something that had no thought put into it. But you noticed something that made me happy and incorporated it into something where I’ll see it everyday. And you’re right I do love a good coffee mug, but now that you mention it, I’ll definitely be using it for mint hot chocolates.” His smile grows bigger when he sees the worry wash away from Hyunjin’s face.

Once all the excitement of the gift giving died down, Changbin suggests the eight of them sit down and watch a Christmas movie before ordering dinner. His suggestion is met with multiple gasps from around the room. “Changbin, are you- the Scrooge of our friendship group - suggesting we watch a...Christmas movie?” Jisung is always one to put on theatrics and right now he grabs at his chest, feigning shock.

Changbin doesn’t understand what the big deal is, “It’s just a movie, why are you guys shocked?”

From across the room, Jeongin also grabs at his chest in mock surprise, and Changbin wonders how he ended up with two overly dramatic roommates. “Last year we had to force you to sit down and watch a Christmas movie with me and Jisung, and now you’re willingly the one who wants to do so.” Jeongin’s confusion turns do concern, “do you have a fever?”

“No I don’t have a fever,” Changbin laughs, he looks around to the rest of his friends to see their reactions, “is it really that shocking?”

Like all the other times his friends jokingly band together and view Changbin as some anti-Claus, Hyunjin comes to his rescue. “I don’t think it’s surprising that Changbin wants to watch a Christmas movie. Maybe all the festive things we’ve done in the past few weeks has gotten him into the Christmas spirit.” He pauses for a moment, moving his hair behind his ears, “Maybe, all the festivities have Changbin wanting to do other things Christmas related,” he turns to look Changbin in the eye, now speaking directly to him, “is there anything else you wanna say?”

Changbin freezes, understanding the connotation of his words, he has an idea of what Hyunjin wants him to say and he wants to - but is now really the special moment that Hyunjin wants for Changbin to confess to him? Or maybe Changbin is reading the situation entirely wrong and is about to make a fool of himself.

He opens his mouth, but it seems that his second guessing took too long for Hyunjin because the blond sighs in disappointment and forces a smile, clapping his hands together to gain everyone's attention. “Right, which movie shall we watch?”

The movie they end up watching is so bad in Changbin’s opinion that he immediately regrets suggesting in the first place. Not because it’s a Christmas movie, no, the movie Jeongin insisted on watching is some animation about a penguin who wants to leave the North pole to find his friend a cool Christmas gift. Or something along those lines, Changbin isn’t really paying attention.

But Jeongin seems happy from where he’s cuddled up on the sofa with Seungmin, his arms tightly wrapped around his gift from his secret Santa. The cushion with Seungmin’s face on it, that Changbin knows will remain attached to his youngest roommate whenever his boyfriend isn’t over. 

With the feeling of Hyunjin’s arm brushing against his own Changbin tries his best to focus on the movie; to keep his eyes on the happy cartoon elves assisting the stupid looking penguin and not on the way Hyunjin shifts himself to bring him even possibly closer to Changbin. 

Though, something good does come from watching a shitty movie with his friends. Like a lightbulb going off above his head or maybe it’s just the amount of eggnog he’s consumed hitting him; Changbin decides that he wants Hyunjin to know how much he likes him - he needs to know. He knows himself and Changbin knows that he doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body, but he’s willing to do the grandest, most romantic gesture he can come up with; and do on such short notice. 

Later that night, when everyone who doesn’t live at their apartment leaves, Changbin makes a new group chat. One that doesn’t contain Hyunjin and he writes out a very long and thorough text message to his friends letting them know of the plan that he’s formed out perfectly in his head. Now all he needs is for nothing to go wrong.

  
  
  


-

  
  
  


Hyunjin has had enough, he thought that he’s been throwing the right amount of hints to Changbin but it seems that the other is just as shy as he is. When Felix first invited Hyunjin to meet his friends he was open to being introduced to the group. He was particularly interested in meeting Jisung’s ‘sexy roommate Changbin’ - Felix’s words, who put strong emphasis on him being the only other single person he knows. So when Hyunjin walked into Jisung’s apartment for Jeongin’s birthday earlier in the year and made eye contact with the guy in the party hat who blushed and averted his eyes, he knew he was done for. 

Which was why he spent the whole year dropping subtle hints of flirtation hoping for it to be reciprocated. It was, kind of. Turns out Changbin either couldn’t take a hint or his flirting was just plain horrible. Throughout the year Hyunjin has been waiting for Changbin to confess or even just to give Hyunjin a sign that his attraction isn’t one sided. 

Nothing seemed to be working until that one party where Jisung and his fucking Christmas supestitions landed in Hyunjin accidentally locking lips with the boy he has a crush on. And after that Hyunjin has been laying the hints on pretty thick, from physical touch to constantly mentioning how he wants a Christmas romance.

But even then Changbin has yet to do anything, which leaves Hyunjin to do the damn thing himself.

He storms down the hallway with determination, after thoroughly thinking through his plan there’s no stopping him now. After sending a text that confirmed that Felix is over at his boyfriend’s apartment, Hyunjin ran to the home where he’s been spending a lot of his time lately. He reaches the front door to his friend’s apartment, his hand raised ready to knock, but he remembers the multiple times Changbin’s mentioned that they keep the door unlocked. So Hyunjin places his hand on the door handle and swings the door open, ready to tell Felix his plan.

But what he sees makes him squeak and cover his eyes before the image gets engraved into his brain. Lying on the couch is Jisung and Felix, in the middle of a heated make out session, Hyunjin doesn’t look long enough to see any more details which he’s thankful for. 

“Jesus Christ, guys. You really do this out in the open when you’ve got the privacy of a bedroom.”

Hyunjin’s voice alerts the two boyfriends that someone else is in the room and they break apart, both turning to the front door to see Hyunjin, hands still covering his eyes.

“Oh, hey Hyunjin,” he can hear Jisung greet him, “you can look now, we’re decent.”

Hyunjin hesitantly removes his hands, and the sight of Jisung and Felix sitting a few feet apart confirms that it’s safe for him to enter. He shuts the door behind him and moves so that he’s standing in front of the pair, he still has his mission and he needs to run it by someone else before he does anything. “Right, I have something to tell you guys.”

“You want us to help you hide the body,” Jisung states with a straight face.

“What?” Hyunjin says in disbelief, “No that’s not what I was going to say, though I know who to come to if I ever do need to hide a body.” Jisung beams at him, throwing him a thumbs up. From next to him Felix seems more serious as he notices the slight panic in Hyunjin’s eyes, “what did you wanna tell us Jinnie?”

Hyunjin takes in a deep breath, his hands on his hips as he blurts out, “I’m in love with Changbin.”

Silence consumes the room as Jisung and Felix glance at one another, deciding on who’s gonna break the news to Hyunjin. It seems that from their eye contact they decide that it’s Jisung who’s going to speak on their behalf, “yeah, no fucking shit.”

Hyunjin is taken aback by his straightforwardness, “you knew?”

“Jinnie, my lovely, it was so obvious. We aren’t blind, we saw the way you look at him. And it definitely wasn’t an accident that one time you slapped his ass and said it was because a bug coincidentally decided to land there.” Felix laughs at Hyunjin’s blushing face.

“It was a moment of weakness,” he mumbles under his breath. 

Jisung snorts, “honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t clock on that I’ve spent every opportunity to make the two of you see that you’re crazy for eachother.” Upon seeing Hyunjin’s confusion, Jisung explains, “I literally pushed you to kiss him, I invited you over to decorate cookies with Changbin so you’d spend some time alone together. Do you know how difficult it was to make the sacrifice of you two idiots decorating the sacred christmas cookies? They looked horrific but I tolerated it cause I thought you were gonna fuck in the kitchen.”

“Jisung,” Hyunjin is shocked by his friend’s direct assumption, “that’s indecent.”

His friend ignores him with an eye roll, “I even rigged our secret Santa so that you and Changbin would pick each other.”

Hyunjin is in disbelief at the extent his friends would go through to help his sad excuse of a love life. This entire time the only thing he thought his friends had contributed to was physically making him kiss Changbin but it turns out they’d been trying to help since the start. 

“If you say that you love Changbin,” Felix starts, a sweet smile on his face, “does that mean you’re going to confess to him.” His voice gets higher towards the end of his sentence, showing his excitement. 

Hyunjin gets shy as he gets reminded of what he came here for in the first place. He moves to sit down in between his friends from where he was awkwardly standing in the middle of the room, “yeah I was planning on doing it after I leave here.”

“Then why are you here?” Jisung asks, then realises his words could be interpreted as rude and quickly backtracks, “I mean why are you sitting with us when you could be getting your man?”

“I dunno,” Hyunjin fiddles with his fingers, “I just wanted reassurance, I guess. Maybe a little bit of advice.” He speaks quietly, now wondering if all of this is a bad idea.

“Okay so what was your plan?”

“I was just gonna go up to him and tell him I like him.”

Jisung nods thoughtfully, “okay, so we’re going the direct route, got it. Honestly, Binnie is so oblivious, I think being upfront with him is the best way to do it. And if he’s still confused throw a kiss in there just to seal the deal.”

“Be upfront. A kiss to seal the deal.” Hyunjin repeats back to himself. He’s surprised to admit this but coming to his friends has given him a confidence boost he didn’t know he needed. He abruptly stands up, startling his friends, “I’m gonna do it.”

He’s met with encouraging cheers and comforting claps on his back. Just like before, there’s nothing that can stop Hyunjin in his path now that he has an end goal. 

“Wait,” Felix’s voice startles Hyunjin, “do you not want to wait until tomorrow? Christmas eve is much more romantic than the twenty-third.”

Jisung furrows his brows in confusion, “what’re you talking about?”

Felix punches his boyfriend’s arm, the two of them having a silent conversation while Hyunjin watches them like he’s not even in the room. Realisation dawns on Jisung’s face, “oh~ yeah, Lix is right, tomorrow would be better.”

Hyunjin disagrees with them entirely, he’s already psyched himself up to the point that stopping now, just to do it the next day makes no sense. “Nope, I’m not gonna listen to you two, I’m gonna confess to Changbin and the next time you see me I’m going to have a boyfriend.”

Throwing a goodbye over his shoulder he walks straight out of the apartment and back down the hallway.

Until he remembers that he’s forgotten one little detail that makes him spin back around to the apartment. Barging into the apartment once again, he blurts out, “do either of you know where Changbin is right now?”

“He told me that he was going to the gym to get one last session in before it closes for Christmas,” Jisung fills him in.

Hyunjin takes in the new information, thinking on how he’s gonna get to the gym from where he is. But then the realisation pops into his brain, he remembers back to the time when he saw Changbin dressed in his cute elf uniform when he saw the elder at his Christmas job. And how he informed him how he often lies to his friends saying he’s at other places when he’s actually at work.

A grin breaks out onto his face, “thank you, I’m gonna be heading over to  _ the gym _ .” He informs them, a hint of irony in his voice.

“Why did you say the gym like that?”

“Are you okay?”

Hyunjin doesn’t respond to them, instead he closes the door and makes his way down the hallway with a spring in his step and his chest clenching in anticipation.

  
  
  


-

  
  
  


Shaking the snow out of his hair, Hyunjin scans his eyes through the department store. With it being the evening of Christmas Eve Eve the store is bustling with frantic shoppers trying to buy last minute presents. 

But Hyunjin is here for one reason and one reason only.

He politely tries to navigate himself around the shoppers, muttering constant excuse me’s as he does so. Dodging swinging handbags and crying children, Hyunjin makes his way to Santa’s Grotto.

Unsurprisingly, given the date, the queue to see Santa is one that exceeds the waiting area and starts to make its way into the store. Hyunjin stands on his tiptoes to try and find Changbin, there was no point in doing anything if the person he’s looking for wasn’t here in the first place.

However, luck seems to be on his side tonight as he catches a glimpse of Changbin’s black hair as it pokes out of his elf hat. Hyunjin has a goofy smile on his face as he takes in Changbin’s appearance, he knows that the older probably thinks he looks ridiculous in his uniform but Hyunjin thinks that he looks adorable. 

He forgets that he’s currently standing in a busy store when he gets pulled out of his thoughts by a harsh shove that sends him flying into a sales rack. He would’ve turned around and yelled at the guy but he’s more preoccupied with doing what he came here to do.

Hyunjin decides- fuck it, and winces to himself as he awkwardly shuffles past children joyfully waiting in line to see Santa and their less than enthusiastic parents. People start to question what Hyunjin’s doing moving passed them in the queue.

“Hey! Stop cutting the line.”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Hyunjin grimaces as he points to the front of the line, “my daughters that way. Honey!” He calls out, avoiding making eye contact with parents as he looks down until he’s at the front. 

Changbin has his customer service smile on as he expects to greet the next family in line, only for his smile to falter when he sees Hyunjin standing there. 

“Hyunjin,” he squeaks out, eyes flitting to the annoyed stares from the queue, “what are you doing here?”

_ This is it _ , Hyunjin thinks to himself,  _ no turning back now.  _

He opens his mouth, ready more than ever, “I-“

“Can you hurry up, I wanna see Santa,” the high pitch voice of a little girl at the front of the line complains, interrupting Hyunjin just as he is going to make his confession. 

“Santa isn’t real,” he snaps. 

The little girl's eyes widen, tears filling her eyes as her bottom lip wobbles. Changbin panics, going past Hyunjin to the girl and her very angry parents, “sweetie don’t listen to him, he’s just mad because he’s on the naughty list this year. Santa’s right over there -see.” Her crying seems to simmer down, believing Changbin’s words and convincing composure. 

He lets her through to see Santa, giving a sheepish smile to her parents as they pass. Then he goes over to Hyunjin, grabbing a hold of his hand, “Hyunjin you need to leave, I’m at work.” 

If he wasn’t determined, Hyunjin would’ve done as he was told and left. But he is determined, and he needs to tell Changbin how he feels for him before he loses the courage he’s mustered up. “No,” he blurts out. Changbin frowns in confusion and Hyunjin doesn’t give him a chance to reply, “I need to tell you something.”

Changbin raises an eyebrow, “What is it? Can’t it wait until later?”

Hyunjin shakes his head, “no, I need to tell you now or I never will.”

The elder breathes out a sigh through his nose and Hyunjin takes that as an okay to go ahead. He takes a deep breath 

“I once told you that I wanted this grand confession during Christmas with snow and carolers. But you also deserve a grand Christmas confession. I mean this isn’t really the way I planned on telling you, I had a whole speech planned out but now that I’m here and you’re wearing your cute little elf get-up it’s gone straight out the window.”

Changbin remains silent as he listens to Hyunjin, the only sound he makes is the jingle of his elf hat as he nods along, slowly taking in Hyunjin’s words.

“I’m sure you know where I’m going with this, but, I like you, Changbin. I love the way you put up with what everyone else wants to do because it makes them happy. I also love how you can make me laugh even without trying to be funny, and the way you’ve slowly come to enjoy Christmas, even if you don’t realise it.”

“I’ve always liked Christmas,” Changbin admits sheepishly, “I’ve just enjoyed it more this year because you’ve been a part of it.”

Hyunjin blushes, not expecting the confession to turn around and end up receiving a compliment.

“Also, I was planning on confessing to you tomorrow. I figured Christmas Eve is the most christmassy romantic day to do so. I had it planned out, I was going to invite you over to my apartment and play some christmas song on youtube while fake snow goes all over my floor. What am I supposed to do with a fake snow machine now?”

“You’re an idiot, I love you.” Hyunjin pulls the older towards him and places his lips on his. He brings one of his hands up to Changbin’s hair, lacing his fingers through his dark locks, accidentally knocking the elf hat off onto the floor. Though neither of them seem to notice as they're too busy preoccupied with their kiss. 

Hyunjin sighs into the kiss as he’s finally getting what he’s wanted after almost a year of pining, and it’s most certainly worth the wait. Changbin licks at his lower lip, pulling him even more impossibly closer. Just as Hyunjin is about to part his lips, he feels himself being pulled away from Changbin entirely.

He pries his eyes open to see Changbin, plump lips open in surprise. He gets smaller as Hyunjin gets dragged away by two large security guards. Another member of staff must’ve reported them to security.

To be honest, Hyunjin doesn’t blame them, he and Changbin have probably traumatised at least twenty kids with them seeing some random guy kissing an elf at Santa’s grotto.

He doesn’t put up a fight, though he does find it embarrassing being pulled through the busy department store, where everyone’s staring at him probably assuming that he’s some kind of delinquent trying to steal. 

When they reach the front of the store, one of the security guards opens the door while the other pushes Hyunjin through it.

“Be lucky you aren’t banned from stepping foot inside here again, kid.” The security guard grumbles.

Hyunjin rolls his eyes, straightening out his clothes back to the way they were. That wasn’t how he was expecting his confession to go, he certainly didn’t prepare to get kicked out of the store.

Ducking his head down in defeat he leaves to make his way home, telling himself he’ll message Changbin when the latter finishes his shift. He walks until he’s at the Christmas fayre, bustling with as many people there usually is. He stops to listen to the carolers, appreciating the joy they bring to the fayre, and how they lighten up Hyunjin’s dampened mood, distracting him from his disaster of a confession.

The rendition of jingle bells gets interrupted when Hyunjin hears his name being called in the distance.

“Hyunjin! Hyunjin!”

He turns around slowly to reveal Changbin running through the crowd to get to him and giggles when he sees what he’s wearing; sneakers on his feet and his backpack on one shoulder. But other than that he is still wearing his elf costume underneath his winter jacket. The bright red and green work uniform stands out greatly in comparison to the dark colours everyone else is wearing around them.

Hyunjin stands still and waits for Changbin to come to him, when he does he kneels over, panting. “Ju-just give me a second,” he pants out, holding a single finger up asking him to wait.

It takes a couple seconds until Changbin stands back upright, a large grin on his face. He’s still wearing his elf makeup, pink blush and fake freckles adorning his pretty face, “Hey.”

“What are you doing here?” Hyunjin asks, “Your shift doesn’t finish yet, right?”

“I quit.” Changbin says proudly.

“What?” Hyunjin gasps, shocked that Changbin would do something spontaneously like quitting his job, “Changbin why would you do that?”

“Because I had something more important to do than telling kids to go sit on an old man’s lap.”

“Oh, and what is this important thing you have to do?”

Changbin takes a step forward and cups Hyunjin’s face in his hands, tilting his head down so they’re at eye level. “I had to tell the man who confessed he loves me that I love him too. If that wasn’t clear enough - I love you.”

He pulls Hyunjin towards him back into another kiss, this time one with snow falling all around them and the sound of carolers as background music. But all of it gets ignored as Hyunjin focuses on Changbin and Changbin only. 

It’s Hyunjin who pulls away first, his eyes blinking open and seeing the man in front of him batting his eyelashes to rid the snowflakes that landed there. 

“You know, this is basically the confession you’ve been wanting.” Changbin smirks, gesturing to their surroundings, “there’s people singing Christmas songs and you’ve got your snow.” He proves his point by reaching up and dusting off the snow from Hyunjin’s coat.

“Hmm, true, though I never did imagine you wearing tights when you confessed your undying love for me.” Hyunjin giggles at Changbin’s face of realisation.

“I didn’t really have time to change when I had to catch up to you. I wasn’t just gonna let you kiss me then run away.” He argues.

“I’m glad you did.”

“So what happens now?” Changbin asks hesitantly, grabbing ahold of Hyunjin’s hand, “I like you and you like me…”

“If you don’t ask me to be your boyfriend I’ll leave you here alone. I’ve been waiting all year for both of us to find some sense, so I’m not leaving here single.” Hyunjin tells him, Changbin starts to laugh but it quickly dies down when he notices Hyunjin’s not joking.

A shy smile makes its way onto Changbin’s face, “well, if you’d let me, I love for you to be my boyfriend.”

Hyunjin coos at how cute Changbin is, pulling him in for yet another kiss. “My answer is yes, by the way, if that kiss didn’t answer it for you,” Hyunjin lets him know after breaking apart. 

Changbin releases the breath he was holding, relief washing over his face. He looks up with a wide smile on his face only to start laughing at what he sees, “you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Confused, Hyunjin follows Changbin’s gaze and laughs outloud himself at the mistletoe hanging above them. “It seems that mistletoe follows us wherever we go.”

“Yeah, but I’d like to clarify that I kissed you because I wanted to and not because there was mistletoe.” Changbin clarifies, exaggerating his pout; which went extremely well with his fake blush.

“You’re so cute,” Hyunjin pinches his cheeks, “my  _ boyfriend _ is so cute.”

Changbin snorts, “you’re gonna keep milking that, aren’t you?”

“Obviously,” Hyunjin scoffs, “I’m not gonna keep it a secret that I’m dating the sexiest elf in the entire city.”

They stay under the mistletoe until Changbin complains about starting to lose the feeling in his legs, rather much preferring to go home with his boyfriend in tow than stay outside. And when they send messages to their group chat telling them that they’re now dating, they’re met with both excitement and confusion over what happened to the plan of Changbin’s confession. But the message that stands out the most is Jisung asking Hyunjin and Changbin to thank him as he’s basically the reason why they are together, because it’s him who sped up their feelings by making them kiss under the mistletoe.

Hyunjin thinks to himself that Jisung isn’t wrong, but he’s not going to tell him that.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Kudos and comments make my day and are always appreciated <3
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/starryseungbin)


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